Great Skellig

Robin and friend Carla contemplate the mystical island of Great Skellig (barely visible on the horizon) in the Atlantic, just off the southwestern shore of Ireland.

A monastery was founded on the barren rock island between the 6th and 8th century. It was continuously occupied until it was abandoned in the late 12th century.

I’ve heard of monastic solitude but, come on!

Digital print
22" x 18"

Robin, detail.

Botanical Garden

The Thursday Plein Air Painters met at the recently opened Santa Fe Botanical Garden for a morning of location painting. I'm getting used to the idea that I don't need to leave the painting location with a finished painting. That's probably a bad attitude, traditionally speaking, but I’m breaking lots of other rules too, so there.

A section of Phase One of the brand new Santa Fe Botanical Garden. Painters are setting up under a portal.

Color sketch of garden rock sculptures, painted on location with acrylic on watercolor pad. 

Later, in the studio, I added a little more detail. 

After reworking more, I took an iPhone photo of the painting, imported it into the computer, repainted the imported version using Corel Painter software, then enlarged the digital painting to 30 x 40 inches (below). 

The final digital version.

Detail.

   

Mermaid Tavern Plaza

Digital watercolor of the Mermaid Tavern Plaza, also known as the front yard.

G’s Studio

Last week, Bob (from my Tuesday night drawing group) and I visited G (also a regular at the drawing group) at her studio in Santa Fe.

Cookies, sparkling water, and freaky massive drawings exploding onto canvases. Experience some of them at her web site.

I shot a few iPhone photos in the studio, including one of Bob that I later used for a digital painting.

Visit to G’s Studio
Digital print
30" x 24"

Detail

I also grabbed a photo of the mysterious G and used it to create another digital painting.

G in Her Studio
Digital print
36" x 32"

Plein Air Chimayo

Three plein air artists and I drove to Chimayo, a cool little village about 45 minutes northeast of Santa Fe and set up our easels outside the humble and historic Catholic church, El Santuario de Chimayo (built in 1816).

Using acrylics on watercolor paper, I decided to paint in a low-stress, enjoy-the-morning, primitive style, also referred to as “crappy drawing” by some more accomplished artists. Later in the studio, I finished the painting, photographed it, then digitally resized it to 40x30 inches for digital output on paper or canvas.

El Santuario de Chimayo
Acrylic on watercolor paper
Print size: 40 x 30 inches

Digital paint version
32 x 24 inches

Poster version
32 x 26 inches

Waterfall 2

Another view of one of the waterfalls at the entrance to Bishop’s Lodge, just north of Santa Fe.

Waterfall 2
Acrylic on watercolor paper

Painting at Valle Caldera

Six of us from the Thursday Santa Fe Plein Air group drove to Valle Caldera, formerly known to most of us as Baca Ranch or Valle Grande. The caldera is a huge valley created by a volcano that collapsed upon itself millions of years ago, located in the mountains just above Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Road & creek in Valle Caldera
Acrylic on watercolor paper

Joe and White Place

I recently spent a day in Abiquiu with artist pal Joe Hall. The village of Abiquiu, 45 minutes northwest of Santa Fe, is best known as the home of artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

We hiked through the White Place, a unique canyon of white rock formations. It also is the location used for the scene of the final battle with aliens in the supremely weird but entertaining movie Cowboys and Aliens. It is best known as the subject of one (or more?) of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings.

After lunch (green chile cheeseburger) at Bode’s General Store we drove to the top of a mesa for another view of the White Place, where I shot an iPhone photo of Joe. Later I used the photo as reference for a charcoal sketch on gray Canson paper. A bit later I scanned the drawing, colorized and antiqued it in Photoshop.

Joe and the White Place
28" x 36"

Tea Pot Study

The tea pot image started as a color crayon sketch on paper. I scanned the crayon sketch, then digitally repainted it with Corel Painter software oil brushes.

Tea Pot Study
Digital Print on Canvas
30 x 30 inches

Bishop’s Lodge

Today I rendezvoused with the Thursday group of Plein Air painters at Bishop’s Lodge, a historic resort just a few minutes north of Santa Fe. Kinda sketchy, but hey, it’s “en plein air.”

Bishop’s Lodge Waterfall
Acrylic on watercolor paper

Model Bill

Bill, a semi-frequent Tuesday night model, has a way of making me feel really flabby and out of shape.  

Last pose of the night.

Bill: Not a perfect likeness, but maybe good enough for a police sketch.

Digital print
Bill & White Pillows

Back to Drawing

After missing two straight weeks of Tuesday night drawing it was good to get back in drawing mode. As is often the case, the short-pose drawings had a lot more going for them than the longer-pose drawings. I’m OK as long as I get at least one drawing that’s worth saving out of a three-hour session.

Between poses the baklava and donut holes were a nice gourmet treat combination not to be found at most drawing groups.

Leaning Loma

Loma pose

Golf & Watercolor

A morning of practice golf with pal Willie for his birthday at the Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe provided me with an iPhone photo that I used as reference for a practice watercolor.

Acrylic Study

Acrylic study, from memory, of my favorite author.

Robin P. Williams
Acrylic on canvas

Empty Water Bottle

It has been a very long time since I opened a tube of acrylic paint, so I decided I should experiment with acrylic painting. I bought a set of 8 basic colors, Robin donated a bunch of tubes from her dusty collection, then I painted this study based on a photo I took of our table at an Italian cafe in New York City a week ago.

Empty Water Bottle
Acrylic on canvas
8 x 10 inches

Empty Water Bottle
Digital print version
20 x 26 inches

Plein Night Air

A couple of days ago we made a two-day trip to New York City, walked to Times Square around midnight, and ran across this sidewalk artist. 

I assume this qualifies as “plein air” painting. Or “plein Times Square” painting. Maybe “plein midnight sidewalk” painting. In any case, it’s good to know that New Yorkers have a place to draw.

I assume you probably have to get a permit to set up like this at Times Square, but if not, I’ll see if some of the regulars from our Tuesday night drawing group would like to hop on over there for a midnight drawing session.

I thought this guy was better than the average sidewalk artist.

We cruised around Times Square for a few minutes, then came back to see how the drawing was going.

I didn’t have time to draw during our two-day NYC adventure, but I did manage to do one drawing of a sleeping passenger on the flight back to New Mexico.

More NYC photos:

Friends from Chicago planned a party for 20 at their favorite New York restaurant, La Grenouille (on East 52nd Street, between Madison Ave. and 5th Avenue). We’re at the upstairs bar partying while our table below is prepared.

Madison Avenue, where Don Draper and other Mad Men work. 

Rain in Rockefeller Plaza.
Speaking of Plazas, I’d like to replace the obelisk in the Santa Fe Plaza with at least one of these.  

Massive stone man art.

Rockefeller Plaza from the NBC cafe window. 

Times Square at midnight panorama.

Los Poblanos Painting

This is the most recent revision of the plein air painting I started last Thursday in Albuquerque at the Los Poblanos lavender farm.

Morning Light at Los Poblanos
Oil on canvas

Paper Face

A friend dropped by with his iPad and showed me the Paper app he had installed, resulting in this quick sketch as we experimented with the app’s tools and interface. More texture and highlights were added in Photoshop. I think it would look good output at about 40 inches by 30 inches. Or larger.

Paper Face
Digital watercolor

Plein Air Thursday

Yesterday’s plein air rendez-vous at Los Poblanos (a lavender and organic farm in Albuquerque) with several other plein air painters gave me a chance to practice painting on location. Like Van Gogh. This version has already been revised/repainted a couple of times. I have even more changes planned as soon as the oil paint dries a bit more.

Cottonwood Tree at Los Poblanos
Oil on canvas with digital enhancement

Unfinished Petunia

Practicing for Thursday’s plein air painting outing.

Magenta Petunias, unfinished
Oil on canvas